Ker Yacht Design
uses state-of-the-art technology, techniques and processes
throughout the research and design processes, and uses the whole
gamut of them. Most of the research work is done in-house,
(the size of the "house" increases somewhat for very large projects
such as Americas Cup), however where a certain speciality skill or
knowlege is required, we can rely on a strong network of consultants
who include our software suppliers.

We use software to both make the
process faster and the results better. We habitually set up
streamlined processes that allow us to carry out repetitive tasks
automatically and through the time saved focus our attendition on
the creative aspects of the job where the real gains are to be
found. These systems capture knowledge efficiently
and allow designers to spend their time designing with powerful
tools rather than spend their
time entering/collecting data or as IT
administrators.

Fluid Dynamics -

The shift in computing power and CFD accuracy in recent years means that CFD has
become an incredibly useful design tool. Over the years we
have gradually amassed a large amount of data from Tank Test,
Wind Tunnel and High-Fidelity CFD computations and we use this data
to continuoussly validate new CFD processes and software.
We see the different forms of available technology as complimentary,
each having its place according to its combination of accuracy, speed
and cost.

An advanced RANS
CFD code which has been developed specifically for the marine
industies. Extensive validations of Fine-Marine
against our series of 1/3 scale tank results impressed us
greatly as did the support of the NUMECA office in Belgium, who
created an automated batch processing system to our
specification. Our system allows for hundreds
of data points to be set off in just a few hours and
run on our compute cluster in Valencia or on a supercomputer
housed elsewhere.

Flowlogic

- A specialised panel code
intensively developed by Egan Technology over the last decade and beta
tested by Ker Design since 2004, current versions of
Flowlogic show remarkable accuracy over most of the relevant speed
range for racing yachts and it's speed (a full VPP matrix
overnight on a laptop computer) and ease of use allows for
many possiblities to be tested.

Tank Testing Tank testing at large
scale remains the most trusted technique for measurement of
potential yacht performance, however for most yacht design
projects the timescale and cost of tank testing becomes
impractable. In certain circumstances and longer-term
projects tank testing becomes an invaluable tool albeit one
that is now used mainly to validate the CFD software and
techniques

Geometry
Definition:

Siemens NX CAD (unigraphics)

Since 2003 all Ker designs have been entirely modelled in the
computer in 3d using NX, to ensure a high degree of accuracy of
the surfaces, to ensure that the design solutions really work and
to be able to design the structural layouts and internal details
before the hull shapes and appendage positions are finalised, then
updated simply by replacing the outer surfaces. This
allows more design time to be spent where it really
matters. Other extensive users of this software include Red
Bull Racing F1 team and many aerospace
companies.